Hedvika Köhlerová

“At that time, it went like this. The Social Democratic Party just folded down. This is a party which was established 160 years ago, back in the old Austria-Hungary. My father-in-law was a Social Democrat, and back then in Austria, where he was apprenticing as acabinet maker, in that party, then, he was a Social Democrat. And then, they just summoned him, then when there were the Communists, so they summoned my father-in-law, and he said: ‘So, Mr. K… you’re a social democrat, when will you join the Communist Party?’ And he said? ‘I am sorry but no. Why should I join the Communists? I’m already member of the Social Democrats.’ So, imagine, from that time on, he, simply, had been employed in the electricity company and when he told this to those Communists, he was not allowed even to enter to the electricity company any more. And at that time, my husband’s colleague came over and asked: ‘So, how are you doing, Honza?’ [And he replied:] ‘I’m sorry but the Commies? Never in my life. I will never forget what you did to my father. He was a Social Democrat and you utterly destroyed him.”

“Oddly enough, we lived across the street, our windows facing, and Zdeněk used to say, at that time, my brother-in-law was still alive, ‘Go date that guy, he’s an excellent musician.’ At that time, he had been already playing in the National Theatre but he was a widower and he had a little boy. And I actually raised him as my own. His mom died young, very young, she was only twenty-three. And husband was two years younger. They had that boy very early. When we got married, he was already three. And then I cared for him. My husband did not let me get a job. He used to say: ‘Nowhere, you will look after the child.’ So I looked after him.” “So he played in the National Theatre orchestra during the Protectorate?” “Yes, in the National Theatre. But, during the Protectorate, some played in the Dresden philharmonic orchestra, some of those Czechs, they were there as forced labourers, they totally forced them to!” “He was one of those?” “We, and at that time when the Germans wanted them to play there, as the German musicians were fighting on the front, weren’t they. So they [the Czechs] were there at that time. Actually, the lady, when she died, he went to her funeral. And it was horrible there at that time, they totally… Dresden, so it was really crazy. And that’s how my husband survived, he went for her wife’s funeral to Prague so he somehow there… Many Czechs were killed there, in the air raids. It was the British who dropped the bomb there. There were many Czechs there at that time. Even in Prague bombs were falling. Total madness, it was.”